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Health and Wellness Promotion

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Through a variety of programs and policies, numerous stakeholders have attempted to promote health and wellness as a way to improve public health and reduce rising health care costs. RAND experts have examined workplace wellness programs, the effects of neighborhood characteristics — such as parks or grocery stores — on health and wellness, policy options for reducing obesity rates, and community substance abuse prevention programs.

Workplace wellness programs can reduce health risks, lower health care costs, and improve productivity — but all programs are not created equal. This toolkit presents a five-step guide for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of a successful workplace wellness program.

Explore Health and Wellness Promotion

Policymakers in Western countries seeking new policy levers to tackle costly lifestyle behaviors in the age of austerity may do well to take up programs based on cash incentives. Recent analysis of conditional payment programs in Latin America highlights some useful lessons.

The Department of Defense has teamed with RAND to conduct a study of the Military OneSource program. To do that, we need your help! We want to know about your experiences with the Military OneSource program, what kinds of services you have used, and what has worked for you and what has not.

In this podcast, learn about current RAND research on sleep and the social environment and why it should factor into such policy decisions as setting school start times, scheduling workers' shifts, and ensuring the health and readiness of U.S. military personnel and their families.

In the context of rising rates of suicide among U.S. military personnel, this report reviews the literature on gatekeeper models of suicide prevention to better understand what is known about the effectiveness of gatekeepers and gatekeeper training.

RAND Europe’s growing work in the field of mental health and wellbeing draws on expertise from across a range of disciplines and methodological backgrounds to bring an innovative perspective to our projects.

PruHealth has commissioned RAND Europe, in partnership with the University of Cambridge, to provide research support to Britain’s Healthiest Company (BHC), a competition that rewards companies that have the healthiest employees and work environment. RAND Europe will design and run the surveys, analyse results, and provide customised reports to participating companies.

This book chapter describes Getting to Outcomes (GTO), an approach to capacity-building that supports empowerment evaluation, and discusses GTO's relationship to empowerment evaluation and evaluation capacity building.

The FDA's new guidelines for calorie labeling on restaurant menus, retail establishments like convenience stores and movie theaters, and vending machines are a long-due recognition that eating away from home can be hazardous to health. But the new mandate falls far short of providing the necessary fix.

As important venues for physical activity, public parks contribute to the health and well-being of surrounding communities. The System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC), a reliable and easy-to-use tool, enables park administrators to quantify park use and park-based physical activity.

“Graphic warning labels” pair gruesome images with warnings about the dangers of smoking, covering anywhere from 30 to 80 percent of cigarette pack “faces” (the front and back). Do they prevent people from starting to smoke or cause current smokers to quit?

This report examines the relationship between nutritional fitness and resilience, using key constructs found in the scientific literature that address self-regulation, positive affect, perceived control, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and optimism.

Just like U.S. civilians, those serving in the Air Force use the Internet, email, texting, and social media for entertainment and to stay in touch with friends and family. But technology use can be disruptive, and “addiction” could signal broader issues.

As hard as it can be to make time for exercise, failing to do so isn't a time-saver. It might seem so for a day or two, but you will feel the result of not exercising in the reductions in your energy, ability to focus and cope, and in your quality of sleep.

It is worth making changes in your everyday choices and actions in order to improve your health. Real benefits in terms of increases in energy, improved sleep, and reduced cardiovascular disease risk are attainable.

The 2014 Healthy Company Index competition in South Africa is currently running. RAND Europe will provide research and analytical support to the competition that aims to identify South Africa’s Healthiest Company.

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Researcher Spotlight

Senior Policy Researcher

Laurie Martin is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She has research and program evaluation expertise in the areas of health disparities, health literacy, and mental health. She recently developed a prototype interactive mapping…

Communications Analyst

Kristin Leuschner is a senior communications analyst at RAND and a professor at Pardee RAND Graduate School. She has more than 20 years' experience in developing effective dissemination strategies and communication materials for a wide variety of audiences, including policymakers, researchers,…

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